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[Dark Souls] If only I could be so grossly incandescent (as Durante) - Res fix in OP

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Speaking of the Hydra, I keep getting my toosh kicked by it as a sorcerer. I have all my most powerful magic defense stuff and have tried the "kite its water attacks while slicing heads in the water" strategy yet he sometimes pulls off 4 direct hits with the water thing and I die. Any tips?

Don't kite it. Get close to it in the water and it'll just use its melee attack which can be easily blocked with a shield. It helps if you have the ring that lets you move freely in water so that you can get close to it so it'll use the melee attack, then run to hack at the heads and then run back close to it. Also, if you're really close to it, if it does use the water attack, they'll just fly over you.

But be careful not to get so close to it that you fall off the underwater cliff and drown.

Heh, first time I came across the hydra I tried to take it out a few times but wasn't sure what to do. Asked in the thread and the same info came up but without the warning.

Was super careful dodging and hiding from the water balls going up to it, then sprinted the last few metres right over the cliff.

Speaking of the Hydra, I keep getting my toosh kicked by it as a sorcerer. I have all my most powerful magic defense stuff and have tried the "kite its water attacks while slicing heads in the water" strategy yet he sometimes pulls off 4 direct hits with the water thing and I die. Any tips?

Don't kite it. Get close to it in the water and it'll just use its melee attack which can be easily blocked with a shield. It helps if you have the ring that lets you move freely in water so that you can get close to it so it'll use the melee attack, then run to hack at the heads and then run back close to it. Also, if you're really close to it, if it does use the water attack, they'll just fly over you.

But be careful not to get so close to it that you fall off the underwater cliff and drown.

I did this when there was only one head left and I wasn't paying attention. My stream chat was instantly spammed with "LOL WTF".

Yeah, that cliff got me good. Came back to fight the hydra after it killed me the first time, had it almost down, and went chasing down one of the heads and fwoosh! Right off the edge. I had stupidly planned to grab my Retrieval after I had it down, and it cost me 7000 souls, the bastard. But yeah, there's actually a spot or two you can hang out where the heads won't even land. Especially once you knock off a head or two. Just make sure you don't go out too far past that body in the water. Once you've got it down to the last couple of heads you can tread carefully enough to see where the drop-off is.

You'll get to meet Oolacile shortly thereafter, which is good times for your sorceror. Make sure you save and reload after summoning her once so you can run back to where you rescued her and grab the Antiquated Set. The Dusk Crown is a thing of beauty. And the set has good curse resistance if you haven't faced off against the basilisks yet.

Yeah, that cliff got me good. Came back to fight the hydra after it killed me the first time, had it almost down, and went chasing down one of the heads and fwoosh! Right off the edge. I had stupidly planned to grab my Retrieval after I had it down, and it cost me 7000 souls, the bastard. But yeah, there's actually a spot or two you can hang out where the heads won't even land. Especially once you knock off a head or two. Just make sure you don't go out too far past that body in the water. Once you've got it down to the last couple of heads you can tread carefully enough to see where the drop-off is.

You'll get to meet Oolacile shortly thereafter, which is good times for your sorceror. Make sure you save and reload after summoning her once so you can run back to where you rescued her and grab the Antiquated Set. The Dusk Crown is a thing of beauty. And the set has good curse resistance if you haven't faced off against the basilisks yet.

You mean I gotta walk all the way back there for that?

...God damnit. This game is just one beautiful train-wreck after the next.

Yeah, that cliff got me good. Came back to fight the hydra after it killed me the first time, had it almost down, and went chasing down one of the heads and fwoosh! Right off the edge. I had stupidly planned to grab my Retrieval after I had it down, and it cost me 7000 souls, the bastard. But yeah, there's actually a spot or two you can hang out where the heads won't even land. Especially once you knock off a head or two. Just make sure you don't go out too far past that body in the water. Once you've got it down to the last couple of heads you can tread carefully enough to see where the drop-off is.

You'll get to meet Oolacile shortly thereafter, which is good times for your sorceror. Make sure you save and reload after summoning her once so you can run back to where you rescued her and grab the Antiquated Set. The Dusk Crown is a thing of beauty. And the set has good curse resistance if you haven't faced off against the basilisks yet.

You mean I gotta walk all the way back there for that?

...God damnit. This game is just one beautiful train-wreck after the next.

the capra demon is really, really obnoxious and to make it bearable on your first playthrough it requires you to both know what the poise stat does, i.e. make you harder to interrupt and stun (good luck, DS doesn't go out of its way for stuff like that), and to memorize the dodge timing on the demon's initial jump attack. once you can get through the door without getting smashed by the first attack and mobbed by the dogs - higher poise, or heavier armor and shield, helps with the latter - you've won the fight.

Yeah, the Capra Demon's initial attack has odd timing making it difficult to dodge. Once you've dealt with the initial attack (either by blocking, dodging, or just taking it like a man), it's an easy fight.

I tried about a dozen times, each ending in a dog pinning me on one the of the edges of the room leading to instant death as Mr. Capra does his one-hit wonder on me. I can't imagine that boss room being described as anything but Terriawfulbadistan.

I tried about a dozen times, each ending in a dog pinning me on one the of the edges of the room leading to instant death as Mr. Capra does his one-hit wonder on me. I can't imagine that boss room being described as anything but Terriawfulbadistan.

Sorry. A better statement would be that the Capra Demon feels harder than it actually is. It's very easy to lose in the first 5 seconds, but if you don't, then it's not very difficult to win.

Try running up to the Capra Demon (yes, counter-intuitive, I know), dodging back when he attacks, and then unlocking your targeting cursor and running past him to the left.

Alternatively, if you really need help, sometimes people leave summon signs right before his door so you could try to find someone to help you during a high traffic time of the week (like Saturday night).

I tried about a dozen times, each ending in a dog pinning me on one the of the edges of the room leading to instant death as Mr. Capra does his one-hit wonder on me. I can't imagine that boss room being described as anything but Terriawfulbadistan.

well, if you omit any description of the stairs I'd probably agree with you on that point. capra demon is terribly difficult when you don't have the fight down, but when you have a solid conception of what you need to do you can 2-shot the dogs the second after capra demon uses his jump attack (the only threatening attack in this arsenal), and just poke him to death from there. if you're newer to the fight, you still have the stairs to clog the dogs and capra on where you can kill them with even greater ease since they always beat capra up the stairs.

note what rainbow said about summon signs, too. with the new patch and abundance of humanity, people are available to be summoned for help on just about every boss fight.

also, the "run up to him" move is pretty much perfect because if you simply back away from him quickly he will spam the jump attack at you. there's a deadzone where you can easily dodge his less agile attacks, kill the dogs, and get past the difficult phase of the fight.

Someone explain to me why I should bother continuing to try to beat the Capra Demon.

This thing is so incredibly badly designed that I don't think I want to see what the rest of the game is like.

Because the Capra Demon isn't that hard. Run past it up the stairs. Run onto the archway. Heal, kill the dogs if they're near you and then easy victory.

This is utterly terrible advice: DO NOT LISTEN. You will drive yourself absolutely 100% mad trying to do this. I cannot emphasize how much this kind of advice led to me dying over and over, getting ever more frustrated. The better idea - which worked the second time I ever attempted it anyway - was to get the best shield you can and decent (but not overly heavy) armor. Then fight him right outside the portal you go into to engage him. You only have to kill one dog (which may or may not be a one hit kill, hopefully it is) and then fight him right there. Just tank his blows (which should now be possible with a good shield and heavier armor) and whack the absolute nonsense out of him. It will still be fairly difficult, but this fight will go much better as the other dog will never aggro. If you aren't a sword and shield type (EG poor endurance and don't have decent armor on you), I am not sure how well this will work (probably won't work at all) but it's worth trying if the stairs method fails (and I suspect it probably will, multiple times in fact).

The stairs are terrible advice IMO. Absolutely 100% terrible. They might as well tell you to roll dice. So much goes wrong trying to sprint to the stairs, like getting blocked, a dog hits you, the Capra demon paths up there perfectly instead of standing below you etc. Admittingly, I thought this fight was a giant piece of badly designed bullshit, but in reality it was probably listening to all the "RUN UP THE STAIRS" people that got me. The first person in the thread (I forget who it was, but I thanked them profusely) who suggested trying the strategy above got me through it almost the first or second time. But again, I was specced for sword and shield (high endurance) and my method is still luck based: If you don't kill the first dog before the capra demon engages you're royally screwed.

No other boss in the game is that poorly designed: Some are probably harder, but they aren't conspiring against you in terms of camera, a tiny little arena and other not so fun aspects.

Someone explain to me why I should bother continuing to try to beat the Capra Demon.

This thing is so incredibly badly designed that I don't think I want to see what the rest of the game is like.

Because the Capra Demon isn't that hard. Run past it up the stairs. Run onto the archway. Heal, kill the dogs if they're near you and then easy victory.

This is utterly terrible advice: DO NOT LISTEN. You will drive yourself absolutely 100% mad trying to do this. I cannot emphasize how much this kind of advice led to me dying over and over, getting ever more frustrated. The better idea - which worked the second time I ever attempted it anyway - was to get the best shield you can and decent (but not overly heavy) armor. Then fight him right outside the portal you go into to engage him. You only have to kill one dog (which may or may not be a one hit kill, hopefully it is) and then fight him right there. Just tank his blows (which should now be possible with a good shield and heavier armor) and whack the absolute nonsense out of him. It will still be fairly difficult, but this fight will go much better as the other dog will never aggro. If you aren't a sword and shield type (EG poor endurance and don't have decent armor on you), I am not sure how well this will work (probably won't work at all) but it's worth trying if the stairs method fails (and I suspect it probably will, multiple times in fact).

The stairs are terrible advice IMO. Absolutely 100% terrible. They might as well tell you to roll dice. So much goes wrong trying to sprint to the stairs, like getting blocked, a dog hits you, the Capra demon paths up there perfectly instead of standing below you etc. Admittingly, I thought this fight was a giant piece of badly designed bullshit, but in reality it was probably listening to all the "RUN UP THE STAIRS" people that got me. The first person in the thread (I forget who it was, but I thanked them profusely) who suggested trying the strategy above got me through it almost the first or second time. But again, I was specced for sword and shield (high endurance) and my method is still luck based: If you don't kill the first dog before the capra demon engages you're royally screwed.

No other boss in the game is that poorly designed: Some are probably harder, but they aren't conspiring against you in terms of camera, a tiny little arena and other not so fun aspects.

your strategy worked for your build, the vast majority of starter builds won't have the poise or END on hand to pull that off. I really hate the concept of just letting him pound on you, the dogs aren't dangerous enough to warrant that sort of turtling. it's basically just "dodge his moves that aren't the jump attack and kill the dogs", except you're actually letting him hit you...don't get it.

you even admit you should be one-shotting the dogs, just push out from the doorway and eventually kill the other one, then use the stairs for zoning and plunge attacks. or just rush for the stairs, it works more often than not...

I'll back up RD on the stairs comment. It's how I always beat Capra and it works fine.

As stated, Capra is all about the first few seconds of the fight. If you can survive the initial assault, you'll be ok. Time your run for the stairs and you'll be fine. If you get caught by dogs and then Capra winds up his big attack you're probably in for a world of hurt.

It really doesn't and you don't need a huge amount to do it (shields with decent poise are available before the capra demon). I should emphasize that you can roll around many of his attacks very easily, so you don't need to block everything but this works very well. The stairs are just a dumb idea. If you're lucky, you might get on top of them and then just get unlucky because he CAN jump attack you from the bottom (which naturally one shots you as you probably don't expect it). Honestly if you have a decent shield and some endurance, the tanking strategy is far better. You only ever need to deal with one dog and then the rest of the fight is just rolling (or blocking, depending on the attack, you obviously don't block the overhead strike or jumping attack - but they are also easy to avoid).

Edit: I don't think he is optional if you are playing the game without the master key, but I might be mistaken on that (can't honestly remember).

you know, I'm willing to admit that this is a feasible strategy, even if it requires you to specifically gear for one simplistic boss and cheese it by avoiding an add. what I don't really understand is why you keep insisting the stairs are a dumb strategy when they obviously work for the majority of people, especially when you understand how the jump attack timing works. it's literally as simple as avoiding the jump attack and using the two seconds to strafe around him, break the lock-on and sprint up the stairs. fight over!

Edit: I don't think he is optional if you are playing the game without the master key, but I might be mistaken on that (can't honestly remember).

Still optional.

You can get to the Valley of Drakes from Darkroot Basin. Once in the Valley of Drakes, you run past the drakes, fight a few ogres, and then you'll get the key that opens up the shortcut between the Valley of Drakes & New Londo Ruins (that you could have just used if you were using the master key).

Except when he jump attacks you from below and one shots you on the stairs where there is absolutely no room to move (probably trying to kill a dog, this is really fun when he decides to do it). Or he paths up there perfectly and you need to jump down, get stuck on the dogs and then he just kills you. Or a variety of different things that happen, which people espousing the stairs strategy curiously never seem to acknowledge ever happening.

All I know is I never got the stairs strategy to work, then did it that way and it worked straight away easily with almost no luck involved (except if I hit one dog before he got to me, which isn't that bad). Given that I killed him easily with a pyromancer (albeit, yes lol pyromancy) this way and I didn't have much investment in endurance beyond a shield with good poise it's not that hard even for non-specced characters (again, I was more or less dodging everything except for a few attacks).

Also the word "Cheese" is hilarious: The entire stairs strategy relies on cheesing the boss by praying his pathing bugs out and he stands below you instead of climbing up the stairs . Sadly I never once saw him stand below and he almost always perfectly pathed his way up there, but again the stairs 100% luck dependant. This is nothing except cheese and luck.

I think you're misunderstanding the stair strategy. The point of the stair strategy is to give you a brief break so you can take out the dogs without worrying about the Capra Demon killing you. You climb up the stairs, go on the ledge and kill the dogs when they chase after you. Then once that's done, you either stay up there and cheese the boss if he doesn't try to attack you or you play keep away - drop down from the ledge when he goes up the stairs, head back to the entrance when he jumps down, and then go back up the stairs.

in what world does he beat his dogs up the stairs when the dogs are 1) faster 2) closer to you since his first jump attack flings him towards the door?

I don't acknowledge those one-offs happen because they happen one in every ten times, with the other nine being: roll past jump attack, dog(s) follow you up, kill at least one dog, do as you will to kill the other dog who may or may not have followed you (plunge attack the dog, roll down and 1-2 shot the dog, etc.). the randomness is mild at best when you've done the fight before and almost non-existent when you understand the demon's attack timings.

the point of the stairs isn't to plunge attack spam, it's to chokepoint the dogs initially to kill them without even the slight risk of getting hit and then you can do whatever you like with the actual boss. even if, again acknowledging the "this almost never happens" factor, he beats his dogs up the stairs, just roll off them and go kill the dogs before he can get over to you.

you know, I'm willing to admit that this is a feasible strategy, even if it requires you to specifically gear for one simplistic boss and cheese it by avoiding an add. what I don't really understand is why you keep insisting the stairs are a dumb strategy when they obviously work for the majority of people, especially when you understand how the jump attack timing works. it's literally as simple as avoiding the jump attack and using the two seconds to strafe around him, break the lock-on and sprint up the stairs. fight over!

Well, I watched Kay die to him several times with this tactic, until he literally got lucky one time and avoided 2-3 instant-deaths to get it down. Likewise, I tried doing it a couple of times and just died to getting stunlocked by dogs or stuck on terrain because the room is the size of the closet.
Then I put my shield up and I killed him like he was any other enemy, no effort required. "Even if it requires you to specifically gear" is pretty silly, all you need is a shield and enough stamina to take one hit and he's no Havel.

Even if it requires you to specifically gear" is pretty silly, all you need is a shield and enough stamina to take one hit and he's no Havel.

which is still more restrictive and less skill based than "lrn2dodge, hit the stairs, win fight", frankly. I mean, the reason the stairs are so popular is because blocking his jump attack is 100% unfeasible, and in that gap between your dodge and his recovery you just run up them because, why not? there's no other more efficient action you can take in that time that ensures you get the opportunity to kill an add without getting set up by the other one for a demon attack. if you're a real badass, just deadzone the demon in the range where he'll do slow swings and no jumps and kill the dogs as they come in...no stairs or awkward dependence on END and stability required, just fight knowledge.

I'm not going to waste any more of anyone's time with this, there's obviously a multitude of ways to approach the encounter and all of them are valid.

Stair strategy worked for me on my 2nd attempt. First time I walked in I got pounded into the floor. Second time I sprinted for the stairs with my shield up & Havel's Ring equipped, Capra Demon smacked me once for mild damage, and then I made it the rest of the way to the corner. Dogs jumped at me one by one, polished them off, and then found the Capra ridiculously easy. Maybe it was a once-off lucky chance, but I didn't find the opening of the battle that hard as soon as I knew where to go.

SF4 pc uses it and it has friends lists and stuff, seems fine to me. Does everyone hate it cause it sometimes has login issues or am i missing something?

I think it's more of the stigma towards Microsoft by Steam lovers, that, login issues AND SUBSCRIPTION FEE!?!??! (which they recently changed to no sub fee)

I haven't played a game using GFWL since Bio2 and B:AA, so I haven't seen the improvements first hand. I did hear that it is much, much better now in comparison. So I really don't care either way.

One of the biggest complaints was that you can't play a GFWL game while using your X-Box's Live services(i.e. Netflix). If you use one, it logs you out of the other, and you can't play a GFWL game without being logged into Live. Where we're at a point now where more and more people are opting for Netflix/Hulu/etc. services over cable, this is unacceptable to a lot of people.

Its more the implementation of GFWL in the games, not so much GFWL itself. Like in most games I've played that have had it, no problems at all. It logs me in and I'm off doing my thing. But it lost my save in Batman AC minutes after I'd completed the first playthrough entirely (collectibles too) and it wouldn't let me log in at all for Bioshock 2. So yeah, I'm a bit peeved its using GFWL.

several GFWL games in the recent past have had issues with saves disappearing or my personal favorite with getting locked in a cycle of loading a game, GFWL saying it's going to update, closing game to update, open game, GFWL saying it's going to update, closing game... I played that game with red faction gorilla for a fairly long time.

For the record GFW is fine and a great thing for PC games. The Live part needs a lot of attention that microsoft just doesn't give it a lot of the time unless something like batman eating saves becomes common.

Also they make it either really hard or impossible to back up saves. I haven't figured out which. because the actual save file isn't enough to copy over to a new computer. There must be some gfwl profile file you need to backup too that I'm not personally aware of.

that said. once it's working it's unobtrusive except to pop up achievements.

several GFWL games in the recent past have had issues with saves disappearing or my personal favorite with getting locked in a cycle of loading a game, GFWL saying it's going to update, closing game to update, open game, GFWL saying it's going to update, closing game... I played that game with red faction gorilla for a fairly long time.

For the record GFW is fine and a great thing for PC games. The Live part needs a lot of attention that microsoft just doesn't give it a lot of the time unless something like batman eating saves becomes common.

Also they make it either really hard or impossible to back up saves. I haven't figured out which. because the actual save file isn't enough to copy over to a new computer. There must be some gfwl profile file you need to backup too that I'm not personally aware of.

that said. once it's working it's unobtrusive except to pop up achievements.

There's a hidden XLive folder with the encrypted save data if you're using an online profile, but there are some issues of having a new pc and using installing the game on that, since the profile generates a new ID based on that hardware. There might be a way around that now, but it's just more trouble than it's worth.

Soooooooooooo I just bought this for 360. Played through the opening area to the first real area of the game.

I don't want to say this game raped me per say. But I do feel like I should call the police on it and I can't sit down right now.

Is there some total newbie beginner guide to ease the pain? Or like... an ice pack or some shit? Because OW.

A few beginner tips:

1 - From the starting area, head upwards - the other two directions are not meant to be done until much later (although you might want to visit each briefly just to grab a few items).

2 - For the most part, you shouldn't try to multi-class. Pick an offense stat - Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, or Faith - and stick with it (although you might need to put a few points into another stat for equipment or spell requirements) Vitality & Endurance are good for everyone. Resistance isn't too hot and is mostly just a stat you use if you've already maxed out everything else you care about.

3 - Pyromancy is good with anyone since it doesn't require stats to use. Also, the Pyromancer is generally the best starting class.

4 - The triangle button switches your stance to hold a weapon with both hands. It's more useful than it may see - it gives a 50% bonus to Strength and changes your move list. Some weapons like the Hand Axe, Mace, and Club have their guard-break stat increase in this mode as well.

I tried about a dozen times, each ending in a dog pinning me on one the of the edges of the room leading to instant death as Mr. Capra does his one-hit wonder on me. I can't imagine that boss room being described as anything but Terriawfulbadistan.

Sorry. A better statement would be that the Capra Demon feels harder than it actually is. It's very easy to lose in the first 5 seconds, but if you don't, then it's not very difficult to win.

Try running up to the Capra Demon (yes, counter-intuitive, I know), dodging back when he attacks, and then unlocking your targeting cursor and running past him to the left.

Alternatively, if you really need help, sometimes people leave summon signs right before his door so you could try to find someone to help you during a high traffic time of the week (like Saturday night).

Another useful thing that a gamefaqs user said once: when you get through the fog door, immediately chuck a Black Firebomb (or a regular Firebomb). With luck, it'll damage the Capra Demon and kill one of the dogs. It should be easier to roll over to the stairs and kill the second dog that comes up after you. From then on, it's easy.